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How NASA "Does" Smallsat



 
 
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  #1  
Old December 10th 03, 09:57 PM
ed kyle
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Default How NASA "Does" Smallsat

Here is a funny story about NASA overkill on a smallsat
job from this week's Aviation Week, online version at:
"http://www.aviationow.com/avnow/news/channel_awst_story.jsp?id=news/12083top.xml"

"Military Applications Could Push Smallsats Over Launch-Cost Hurdle
By Frank Morring, Jr.
December 7, 2003"

"...One exception to NASA's withdrawal from smallsats is the Cosmic
Hot Interstellar Plasma Spectrometer satellite (CHIPSat) mission
the U.S. agency funded with a grant to the University of California,
Berkeley. To build its spacecraft, Berkeley hired SpaceDev, an
entrepreneurial startup based in Poway, Calif., that did the work
with a team of only six people. SpaceDev's founder and CEO,
Jim Benson, is an iconoclastic cheerleader for private-sector
space ventures who boasts the satellite was built under a
"two-page commercial fixed-price contract for $4.9 million."

"NASA sent 24 people to do a review of our three engineers,"
Benson told a smallsat symposium at the International Astronautical
Congress in Bremen, Germany, in October. "NASA had 12 people on the
telephone from Goddard and 12 from headquarters and 24 in the room,
and the three of us were sitting at the table. It was really like
an inquisition."

"The 40-kg. spacecraft was built from commercial-off-the-shelf
hardware, with an eye to simplicity. CHIPSat was launched in
January and was "operating almost perfectly after nine months."
As an example of the system's simplicity, CHIPSat is controlled
with a laptop computer via a secure Internet link by an operator
who can be paged--again via the Internet--by the satellite's
on-board electronics if a problem develops. ..."


OK, if these 48 people cost an average of, say, $75 per hour
(including labor, insurance, etc), and if the travel expenses
for the 24 visitors were about $1K per person, than it is
entirely likely that this review cost on the order of $50K,
or more than 1% of the cost of the entire satellite!

- Ed Kyle
  #2  
Old December 11th 03, 12:46 AM
Henry Spencer
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Default How NASA "Does" Smallsat

In article ,
ed kyle wrote:
OK, if these 48 people cost an average of, say, $75 per hour
(including labor, insurance, etc), and if the travel expenses
for the 24 visitors were about $1K per person, than it is
entirely likely that this review cost on the order of $50K,
or more than 1% of the cost of the entire satellite!


More than that, when you consider indirect costs -- for example, any major
project review typically produces a six-week gap in the project, because
all the engineers are working on documents and presentations rather than
engineering.
--
MOST launched 30 June; first light, 29 July; 5arcsec | Henry Spencer
pointing, 10 Sept; first science, early Oct; all well. |
 




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